MINIs on Top 2012

On June 23rd, 2012, MINIs on Top officially started! I set up a caravan to drive up Saturday morning for the event. It got off to a rocky start as the location I chose (NH Liquor Store / Rest Stop just past the MA/NH border along I-93 N) happened to be demolished, and was just a rest area now. I guess I shouldn't have trusted Google Maps for the information and personally checked it out. So the rest area was still there, but the liquor store was gone. And as some of the MINI owners pulled off the highway, they saw that there wasn't a liquor store there, and hopped back onto the highway to head up until they saw another liquor store. They ended up going about 15 miles up I-93 N. A few MINI owners were there waiting for me as I arrived, knowing that it was the correct meeting location. I fortunately was in contact with another MINI owner who was planning on meeting up with us at the next liquor store exit, so the MINI owners who had continued to drive to that liquor store exit, met up with her there. So at 6:00am, we departed the original location, and proceeded up I-93 towards the rest of the group. We had about 5 MINIs in our caravan and then once we met up with the other MINI owners, we had about 12 MINIs in the group. Driving up to Lincoln, NH took about 1 hour and 45 minutes, driving the speed limit and not stopping. Once we all arrived, we stopped at Dunkin' Donuts for recharging and a bathroom break. Then it was a short 5 minute drive to Loon Mountain for the event!

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Once we arrived at Loon Mountain, you would not believe what the atmosphere was like! 300+ MINIs in a parking lot was an amazing sight to be seen! Every single MINI there was different. No two MINIs were the same! You had the vendors and the registration tent along the back side of the lot, and then you had the car show over on one side and the incredible amount of MINIs all over the parking lot and more pouring in every minute! This is what being part of the MINI community is all about! Just walking around, talking to fellow MINIacs, and seeing the vendors and volunteers who were running the event was amazing. It reminded me of MINIs on the Dragon which inspired me to create MINIs of Boston.   

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During the time at Loon Mountain, we checked out the car show. Fellow MINIs of Boston member, Wayne McLennan, entered his MINI in the show. I talked to him for a little bit and checked out his RC MINI he was driving around. I also checked out the other MINIs in the car show and then proceeded to the vendor section. I purchased a MINI hat and also a new oil dipstick that someone was selling. We check out all the other MINIs that had shown up for the event and took a look at the drives that were going on. We chose to do the Franconia Route 2 drive, which took us out and through Franconia and back to Mt. Washington. I have driven the area before and although I didn't do this route before, I had to lead the pack of MINIs doing the drive. And wouldn't you know about half a mile into the drive, a gust of wind happened to blow across the road, and my windows were down, and the directions were sucked out the window! Luckily for us, I had taken a picture of the directions with my phone, and we used that to navigate all the way through Franconia to the Willy House Picnic Area. The drive was nice. There were still a few frost heaves in the roads but for the most part it was pretty nice. I started to notice as the drive progressed, the darkening of the sky and impending storm that was heading our way.

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Once we arrived at Willy House Picnic Area, we got lunch and relaxed for a bit before we continued our drive to Mt. Washington. Here we were, in the bottom of a valley which had a pond alongside the road, and we could see the storm coming in from the north west. It was pretty neat seeing how on one side it was dark, gloomy, and gray, and then the other side had clear skies and the sun was shining. At this point, I knew that this storm meant business!

After lunch, pretty much the whole caravan of MINIs that followed me here had taken off and headed on their own to Mt. Washington. Only a handful of stragglers left once we were ready leave. As we got closer to Mt. Washington, the rain started. At times it was coming down so hard we would have to slow down to a crawl just to be able to see what was in front of us. By the time we made it to the base of the Mt. Washington Auto Road, the rain had let up and was merly drizzling at that point. Luckily, the rain died down, because we had a little more time to kill while we waited for them to finish setting up the tent for the dinner event. So we spent the time talking to fellow MINI owners who were also waiting. And after what seemed to be an eternity, waiting in the rain, they called us over for the dinner event.

 

They had quite the spread for the raffle prizes, and I even purchased a few extra tickets in hopes of winning a few choice items. Although this wasn't your typical raffle style, I was impressed with how many items they actually had. I myself had my eye set on the MINI folding bicycle among a few other items I also would have like to win. You deposited half of your raffle ticket into a bucket for each item that you wanted, and you had plenty of buckets to choose from! Once they had everyone in and all the raffle tickets deposited, they had a couple speeches like you normally would see at any kind of event like this. Thanking all the volunteers, participants, and vendors who made the event into what it is today. And then they had a special prize. They chose a name from a bucket off all the participants at this year's event. The winner had to come to the stage with everyone who was in his MINI. So up came a man named Charles and his girlfriend. Since Charles was the driver, he had to open a large wrapped box and search through the packing peanuts for their prize. After searching for about 20 seconds on his knees, his hands emerged from the box. He had a small box that he was opening and turning towards his girlfriend, and then you heard the crowd start cheering and you could barely make out the words "Will you marry me?" She was completely caught off guard and she of course said yes! (If you want to see the video of the proposal, check it out at the bottom of this article)

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After the raffles, dinner, awards, and speeches were over, we hurried back to our MINIs to prepare for the trip up to Mt. Washington. The rain had finally died down, and we were just waiting on the "OK" from the Auto Road Crew to start the drive. They weren't sure if we would be able to make it to the top because of the "gravel" section (which was really a dirt section) and with the amount of rain we had that day, it might not be passable. So they gave us the ok and as we approached the "gravel" section we came to a stop. I guess one of the first couple MINIs had gotten stuck in the mud and had to be rescued. After waiting for about 15 minutes or so, the convoy started moving again and we proceeded to the top. The dirt was very muddy and I nearly got stuck as well, but Lucy powered through the mud and made it back to pavement and we reached the summit!

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It was an amazing day for all of the MINI owners who attended MoT 2012! I look forward to next year's event and hope that it doesn't rain that day as well!

The few MINIs who met at the original location. Photo courtesy of Richard Tran.

The few MINIs who met at the liquor store. Photo courtesy of Richard Tran.

I guess we all had the same idea on where to put our coffees from Dunkin' Donuts!

Look at all those MINIs!